What are Primary Sources? Primary sources are sources that come from the person who was involved in an event. These can take on the form of documents that were created as the event took place or they can be created afterwards as a memoir or an oral history.

Primary sources may include:
  • letters
  • manuscripts
  • diaries
  • newspapers
  • journals
  • speeches
  • interviews
  • memoirs
  • photographs
  • audio recordings
  • video recordings
  • research data
  • artifacts

General Information Sites


http://www.digitalvaults.org/
The National Archives
An email account is required to save content, but content can be viewed and printed without logging in.

http://www.calisphere.universityofcalifornia.edu/
Hosted by the University of California, this site can browsed by theme or with an A to Z index.

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/index.html
American Memory from The Library of Congress
American Memory provides free and open access to maps, photos, audio and video. There is a wealth of information on this site. Choose from links to Exhibitions, Thomas Jefferson, Veterans History and a Global Gateway.

http://www.nps.gov/history/nr/twhp/period.htm
Teaching with Historic Places
This site is brought to you by the National Registrar of Historic Places. You can view the location by topic, location, skill, U.S History standard and Social Studies Standards.

http://historymatters.gmu.edu/
History Matters is for high school and college students.



The American Revolution


http://www.si.umich.edu/spies/
Spy Letters of the American Revolution
This site was created for the University of Michigan for its library. It was created in 1999. The site includes letters, stories and people of the American Revolution.

http://ushistory.org/
US History
This site is sponsored by the Independence Hall Association in Philidelphia. Find links to information about The Declaration of Independence, Ben Frankilin and more. Information on the use of these sources is listed on their copyright page.

The Civil War


http://sunsite.utk.edu/civil-war/warweb.html
The Civil War
A comprehensive list of links created and maintained by George Hoemann.

World War I

http://wwi.lib.byu.edu/index.php/Main_Page
Created by WWI volunteers, this site covers the war from all perspectives.


World War II


http://chgs.umn.edu/educational/
The Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies
Housed at the University of Minnesota, this site was created as a resource for information and the teaching of these topics to middle and high school students.

http://plasma.nationalgeographic.com/pearlharbor/
National Geographic Remembering Pearl harbor
Read accounts of the day in the memory book.

http://whmc.umsystem.edu/teachpacket/ww2/intro.html
This site includes lesson plans to use with primary sources.